Text-based alternatives to expensive multimedia content

Against chocolate-covered broccoli: text-based alternatives to expensive multimedia content

Reda SadkiWriting

The great multimedia content deception Learning teams spend millions on dressing up content with multimedia. The premise is always the same: better graphics equal better learning. The evidence tells a different story. The focus on the presentation and transmission of content represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how learning actually works in our complex world. Multimedia content: the stakes have changed In a world confronting unprecedented challenges—from climate change to global health crises, from artificial intelligence to geopolitical instability—the stakes for learning have never been higher. We need citizens and professionals capable of critical thinking, navigating uncertainty, grappling with complex systems, and collaborating effectively with artificial intelligence as a co-worker. Yet much of our educational technology investment continues to chase the glittering promise of multimedia enhancement, as if adding more visual stimulation and interactive elements will somehow transform passive consumers into active knowledge creators. The traditional transmissive model—knowledge flowing one-way from …

Richard Mayer’s research on multimedia for learning actually proves text works better

Richard Mayer’s research on multimedia for learning actually proves text works better

Reda SadkiWriting

Educational technology professionals cite Richard Mayer’s 2008 study more than any other research on multimedia instruction. They are citing the wrong conclusion. Mayer did not prove multimedia enhances learning. He proved multimedia creates cognitive problems requiring ten different workarounds – and accidentally built the case for text-based instruction. What Richard Mayer actually found Through hundreds of controlled experiments, Richard Mayer identified ten principles for multimedia design. The pattern is striking: most principles involve removing elements from presentations. Five principles focus on reducing “extraneous processing” – cognitive waste that multimedia creates. Three principles manage “essential processing” when content is complex. Two principles foster deeper learning. The hidden message: multimedia instruction is so cognitively demanding that it requires ten specialized principles to avoid harming learning. Richard Mayer’s split attention revelation Mayer’s modality principle seems to endorse multimedia: learners perform better with graphics plus spoken text than graphics plus printed text. Educational technologists …

Peer learning outperforms technical assistance

The great technical assistance disruption: How peer networks outperform experts at a fraction of the cost

Reda SadkiWriting

“If health workers do not share their challenges and solutions, we are bound to fail.” This declaration from a participant in the Teach to Reach initiative facilitated by The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) cuts to the heart of a crisis that has long plagued global health technical assistance: the persistent gap between what external experts provide and what practitioners actually need. At the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), TGLF’s Reda Sadki presented evidence of a quiet revolution taking place in how global health organizations approach capacity building and technical assistance. His research and practice demonstrate that digitally-enabled peer learning can overcome fundamental limitations that have constrained traditional models for decades. The implications challenge not just how we train health workers, but the entire infrastructure of expert-driven technical assistance that dominates global health. Why we resist learning from screens To understand why this revolution has …

Peer learning through Psychological First Aid: New ways to strengthen support for Ukrainian children

Peer learning for Psychological First Aid: New ways to strengthen support for Ukrainian children

Reda SadkiWriting

This article is based on Reda Sadki’s presentation at the ChildHub “Webinar on Psychological First Aid for Children; Supporting the Most Vulnerable” on 6 March 2025. Learn more about the Certificate peer learning programme on Psychological First Aid (PFA) in support of children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. Get insights from professionals who support Ukrainian children. “I understood that if we want to cry, we can cry,” reflected a practitioner in the Certificate peer learning programme on Psychological First Aid (PFA) in support of children affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine – illustrating the kind of personal transformation that complements technical training. During the ChildHub “Webinar on Psychological First Aid for Children; Supporting the Most Vulnerable”, the Geneva Learning Foundation’s Reda Sadki explained how peer learning provides value that traditional training alone cannot deliver. The EU-funded program on Psychological First Aid (PFA) for children demonstrates that practitioners …

7 take-aways from Nigeria’s first Immunization Collaborative peer learning exercise

7 take-aways from Nigeria’s first Immunization Collaborative peer learning exercise

Reda SadkiWriting

On August 6, 2024, the Nigeria Immunization Agenda 2030 Collaborative concluded its first peer learning exercise with a final Assembly. This groundbreaking initiative, a partnership between The Geneva Learning Foundation, Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), and UNICEF, has already engaged over 4,400 health workers from all 36 States and more than 300 Local Government Areas (LGAs) across Nigeria. The Collaborative’s innovative approach focuses on empowering health workers to identify root causes of local immunization challenges and develop practical, context-specific solutions. As the initiative continues to grow, with new members joining daily, it could help shift how Nigeria approaches immunization capacity building and problem-solving. Right after the final Assembly on 6 August 2024, Nigeria immunization specialist Jenny Sequeira and The Geneva Learning Foundation’s deputy director Charlotte Mbuh shared their initial thoughts about the exercise. Here are 7 key takeaways from their discussion. 1. Critical Thinking Evolution: Participants made …

Les visage de la vaccination 2023

Semaine mondiale de la vaccination: Que voyez-vous?

Reda SadkiGlobal health, Writing

English version | Version française Ceci est la préface de la nouvelle publication Les visages de la vaccination. En savoir plus… Télécharger la collection… Chaque jour, des milliers d’agents de santé, de l’Afghanistan au Zimbabwe, se lèvent et se rendent au travail avec un seul objectif en tête : faire en sorte que les vaccins parviennent à ceux qui en ont besoin. À l’occasion de la Semaine mondiale de la vaccination du 24 au 30 avril 2023 et du lancement de la campagne « Big Catch Up », la Fondation Apprendre Genève (TGLF) a invité les membres du Mouvement pour la vaccination à l’horizon 2030 (IA2030) à partager des photographies d’eux-mêmes et de leur travail quotidien. Plus de 1 000 témoignages visuels ont été partagés. Il ne s’agit pas de clichés soigneusement composés et techniquement élaborés par des photographes professionnels, mais plutôt d’une vue authentique sur ce que signifie la vaccination dans la pratique. …

Examples of double-loop learning in global health

Five examples of double-loop learning in global health

Reda SadkiWriting

Read this first: What is double-loop learning in global health? Example 1: Addressing low uptake of a vaccine program Single–Loop Learning: Improve logistics and supply chain management to ensure consistent vaccine availability at clinics. Double–Loop Learning: Engage with community leaders to understand cultural beliefs and concerns around vaccination, and co-design a more localized and trustworthy immunization strategy. What is the difference? Double-loop learning questions the assumption that the primary goal should be to increase uptake at all costs. It considers whether the program design respects community autonomy and addresses their real concerns. It may surface competing values of public health impact vs. community self-determination. Example 2: Responding to an infectious disease outbreak Single–Loop Learning: Rapidly mobilize health workers and supplies to affected areas to contain the outbreak following established emergency protocols. Double–Loop Learning: Critically examine why the health system was vulnerable to this outbreak, and work with communities to redesign …

Learning from Front-line Health Workers in the Climate Change Era

Learning from Frontline Health Workers in the Climate Change Era

Reda SadkiGlobal health, Writing

By Julie Jacobson, Alan Brooks, Charlotte Mbuh, and Reda Sadki The escalating threats of climate change cast long shadows over global health, including increases in disease epidemics, profound impacts on mental health, disruptions to health infrastructure, and alterations in the severity and geographical distribution of diseases. Mitigating the impact of such shadows on communities will test the resilience of health infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and especially challenge frontline health workers. The need for effective and cost-efficient public health interventions, such as immunization, will evolve and grow. Health workers, approximately 70% of which are women, that provide immunization and other health services will be trusted local resources to the communities they serve, further amplifying their centrality in resilient health systems. Listening to and building upon the experiences and insights of frontline health workers as they live with and increasingly work to address the manifestations of climate change on …

Digital challenge-based learning in the COVID-19 Peer Hub

Reda SadkiGlobal health, Learning, Writing

A digital human knowledge and action network of health workers: Challenging established notions of learning in global health When Prof Rupert Wegerif introduced DEFI in his blog post, he argued that recent technologies will transform the notions and practice of education. The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) is demonstrating this concept in the field of global health, specifically immunization, through the ongoing engagement of thousands of health workers in digital peer learning. As images of ambulance queues across Europe filled TV screens in 2020, another discussion was starting: how would COVID-19 affect countries with weaker health systems but more experience in facing epidemic outbreaks? In the global immunization community, there were early signs that ongoing efforts to protect children from vaccine preventable diseases – measles, polio, diphtheria – would suffer. On the ground, there were early reports of health workers being afraid to work, being excluded by communities, or having key supplies disrupted. The …

Saci in Defunking Grunter-small

Defunking Grunter

Reda SadkiThinking aloud, Writing

Part 1: The Journey Begins Suspended in the swirling galaxies beyond our own, the celestial stage of the Cat’s Eye Nebula shimmered. The nebula was a kaleidoscope of iridescent gases, dazzling cosmic dust, and radiant energy, an ideal sanctuary for the Astral Scholars. Their gathering place, the Obsidian Forum, was a levitating, jet-black platform, as if carved from a fragment of the universe itself. It was etched with constellations, celestial bodies, and navigational lines of ancient wormholes–an atlas of the universe under their feet. The youngest among them, Saci, was a fledgling star, her eyes twinkling with raw curiosity and a deep yearning for acceptance. A cloud of unresolved excitement perpetually surrounded her, compelling yet subtle, a characteristic trait of many passionate seekers before her. One day, during a session of interstellar navigation training, her enthusiasm came to the fore. Saci hurriedly approached the Grand Orrery, a celestial model showcasing real-time …